


What If It Went Like This Instead

by Oscarsings



Category: Starlight Express - Phillips/Stilgoe/Webber
Genre: F/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-30
Updated: 2019-09-30
Packaged: 2020-11-08 01:54:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,029
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20827448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oscarsings/pseuds/Oscarsings
Summary: So basically this is "What would have happened had Dinah and Rusty fallen in love?"





	What If It Went Like This Instead

Dinah had been off speaking with one of the other coaches when Control had sounded off the announcement that reminded everyone to find their partners. She’d completely missed the reminder so naturally that made her a _ little _ late, but that shouldn’t have been a problem! Dinah never had to even think about changing partners, because the man she _ loved _ was her partner! Besides, there never even seem to be anyone else who would be interested in racing with her anyway. 

When she arrived at the gathering area, the crowd of racers was buzzing with conversation. There were so many trains all packed together, goodness it was a little overwhelming! All Dinah wanted to do was find Greaseball and get ready for the next heat. It shouldn’t have been too hard, usually he was _ somewhere _ at the center of attention. So she weaved in between the trucks looking around and occasionally asking someone for help.

..After about ten minutes of pushing and shoving through the crowd she let out an exasperated sigh. _ ‘Dammit! Where the hell is he?!’ _

This was taking _ way _ longer than she suspected, and the clock was ticking away till Control would be overhead again. No one was being much help either, for the most part just brushing her off or flat out ignoring her. Oh this wasn’t going well, and the noisy crowd was only making it worse. She just needed some kind of grounding, then she could find-

** _Crash!_ **

The loud metallic sound rattled and echoed in her body as Dinah was thrown to the floor. Her head smacked _ hard _ against the track once she finally fell making her let out a pained cry. It had all happened so quickly, why had she fallen? 

Clarity came shortly after. With how wrapped up in her thoughts she had been she hadn’t been looking where she was going, paying so little attention that there was only enough time to get a glance at the engine mere seconds before they had run into her. Annoyance and the pulsing pain in her head made her sit up gritting her teeth. Dinah was _ fully _ prepared to give whoever had run into her hell- till she saw who’d run into her. 

Laying not 3 feet away was a familiar little corroded Steam Train. He had also been knocked flat on his back, but quickly began scrambling to get up looking over at Dinah. 

“Sweet Starlight! Dinah I’m so sorry I wasn’t even watching, are you okay? I’m so sorry-” Rusty wasn’t even standing, scrambling on his wheels like they didn’t have any traction, and he was already spouting apology after apology to her. Once he _ finally _ was able to get back on his wheels he bent down and held out his hand to help her, “You yelled, did you hit something? Did anything break?”

Dinah was still dazed from the fall, but now she was just surprised (and honestly startled) by how panicked Rusty seemed. She didn’t remain dazed for more than a second thankfully, quickly pushing herself to her feet without taking his hand and brushing off his apologies. “No no Rusty don’t you go fretting! I’m fine, perfectly fine!” 

“Are you sure?” He pressed with concern in his tone. 

“_ Yes _ Rusty I’m alright.” Dinah assured, reaching around to feel the back of her head where she’d fallen. Dammit, maybe she wasn’t fine, there was a little dent underneath her hair. Oh well, she’d just have to get that checked out later on. “I should’ve been watching more carefully, guess my mind’s just up in the clouds today.”

Despite what she said the steam engine still wasn’t completely convinced she was fine, but he did try to get some concern off his face. “Well what’s on your mind that’s got you so distracted?”

She let out a little dramatic whimper, the curls in her blonde hair bobbing slightly when her head shook, “I can’t find Greaseball anywhere, we’ve gotta start getting partnered up and I don’t want to cut it close finding him.”

“Oh, right!” Rusty scratched at his neck, “Well I think I just saw him over talking to Pearl.”

_ ‘Pearl?’ _ She thought to herself, “Where’d you see them?”

“Over by the track, I can take you over if you want!” 

Dinah smiled appreciatively, “Thanks a million Rusty, but I don’t want to trouble you! I can find ‘em on my own. Besides shouldn’t you be lookin’ for a partner?”

“Well! Uh.. no, I was actually offering because I was heading over there anyway, I figure since Pearl’s not with Electra anymore maybe she’d want to race with me again.” He laughed a bit uncomfortably, “Unless you’d wanna race together?”

Dinah looked curious, completely ignoring Rusty’s question. “Wait, she isn’t with Electra?” 

He straightened up again brushing off his own question as well, “Well kinda! I heard she was thinking of changing partners.” 

Something about that made the dining car feel.. Worried. She wasn’t sure why. “Let’s go find them then okay?”

“Yeah!” Rusty smiled and turned so Dinah could couple up.

After she did, they were off. Rusty didn’t go too quickly, looking around trying to make sure he was taking the right turns and corners as well as making sure Dinah wasn’t knocked into anyone.

After they’d been on the track for a bit, there was a sort of uncomfortable silence. Dinah was thinking again, and Rusty didn’t know what to say. Of course, after he decided to break it that didn’t keep him from saying something. 

“You sure you’re okay Dinah?”

The dining car was pulled out of her mind once again, “I am, really I’m just thinkin’ is all.”

“What about?”

She bit her cheek, “Just Greaseball is all, this whole race’s got him up in a storm.”

That made Rusty get a queasy feeling in his stomach. “Ah yeah?”

“Yeah” She sighed, “Just worried about him is all.”

“He’s the champ though, I don’t think you have to worry about him too much.” Rusty assured. Dinah wouldn’t be able to hear the spite in his voice at the comment, but it was definitely there. 

“Oh no, not worried about him like that but-” She tried to get her thoughts together, but when they didn’t she just sighed, “Nevermind, it’s silly I’ll shut up.”

“No no!” Rusty intervened quickly, “Don’t shut up, it’s fine I get it”

She blinked a bit, “Y’do?”

“Well.. no not all the way but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t keep talking.” He glanced back at her with a smile, “I know you can explain it if you want to”

“That’s.. That’s real sweet Rusty.” She smiled but shook her head, “But I’m really okay. I don’t know how to say it anyway, probably just a lil’ fit of paranoia is all.”

He glanced back and down a bit mumbling to himself, “Seems fitting considering it’s Greaseball..”

Dinah perked up, “Pardon?”

“Um- Pardon what?”

“Pardon as in, pardon What did you say just now?” She pressed a bit, “It was about Greaseball.”

“It wasn’t important” he avoided a dip in the track and took a turn.

Dinah wasn’t sure it wasn’t important, but she got the idea of what he’d been mumbling about. “He’s really not all that bad, I know it don’t seem like it but he really isn’t all bad.”

“If you say so” Rusty pursed his lips, clearly not convinced.

That was a bit annoying, “He’s just competitive is all! It’s why you don’t like him right? That’s really it! He’s not like that with me.”

“Are you sure?” He slowed down and glanced back, still looking concerned. 

_ That _ was _ very _ annoying for some reason. “I _ am _ sure!” She snapped back, “I know what he’s like, he wouldn’t ever do anything that would hurt me!” 

“Dinah Dinah I believe you! Calm down, I’m sorry I really didn’t mean anything by it.” Rusty slowed down more, “Honest I didn’t mean to upset you.”

“You didn’t- you didn’t upset me.” She sighed, “I’m just on edge today.”

“Alright..” He trailed off a bit. The silence seemed inevitable again, and he certainly didn’t want to deal with that again. So instead of letting the conversation fade he said, “So, what is he like then?”

Dinah paused. “What?”

“What’s he really like then? I’m just curious. Since he’s obviously not the same off the track as he is on.” 

The dining car thought on the question. “Well… he’s real sweet.” 

Silence.

“..That’s all?” 

“No! Obviously that’s not all.” She snapped back, “He’s also super carin’, an’ protective, and… all that jazz!”

“Huh,” Rusty tried to imagine Greaseball being.. Any of those. It was difficult. “He seems like a good engine then.”

“He is.” She solidified the statement as they made the final corner to where Rusty was leading her. “It’s why I love him, he seems really gruff but honest I promise under all that metal he’s 100%...” Her sentence faded as she finally saw Greaseball around, “..a cheating ** _BASTARD._ **”

The sight that made her battery break was certainly a warranted one to get upset over. Greaseball and Pearl were pressed up against each other, speaking with stupid flirty looks and smiles that couldn’t be interpreted in any other way. Then- oh Starlight no, Pearl leaned up, Greaseball leaned down and-

Dinah felt her eyes widen, quickly uncoupling from Rusty before he even had a chance to get a handle on what was happening. 

Dinah sped over and up to him so quick you could have sworn sparks flew from her wheels,  
“ ** _Greaseball!_ **” She cried out angrily and hurt. “What the hell are you doing?!”

The two certainly looked surprised that she came out of nowhere, but neither made a move to get away from each other. They looked to each other, and then back to Dinah.

“I’m just shaking things up a bit Dinah.” His voice was so matter of fact and flat like she was somehow _ out of line _ for being upset. And he- he _ smiled _. It was stupid and smug, and obviously it was a smile she’d seen a thousand times over.. But Dinah had never been on the receiving end of it.

“_ Shaking things up _?” She echoed, her eye twitching a tad.

“I just figured it might be good for the race you know? I mean we’re obviously not getting anywhere with _ us _ together.” 

Dinah felt like a pipe had combusted in her chest, “We- How do ** _I_ ** have anything to do with how we do?! I’m not even racing! I-I’m just there so you can _ qualify!” _

“It’s nothing personal dollface” That comment was Greaseball’s pitiful attempt at trying to defuse her anger. “Sometimes you just gotta get a little change in pace.”

“Not when it comes to _ partners _ !” Dinah whimpered out shrilly, pointing an accusatory hand at the first class coach currently wrapped around _ her _ racing partner. “A-And you- Pearl I thought we were friends how couldja do this to me?”

The pretty pink coach flashed a smile at her before coupling up to Greaseball, “Shut up Dinah would you?”

Dinah froze up and shrunk back recoiling her hand. It hurt anyway when Greaseball told her to shut up, but hearing it again from Pearl left her mouth slightly agape from shock. 

The two seemed to realize that was their chance, and Greaseball gave them a little push pulling off. As they went off, Pearl turned around and gave a wave to her, “Good luck anyway Dinah!”

And just like that, they were gone leaving poor Dinah standing there with her eyes wide and her internal machinery frozen. 

It just.. It happened so quickly. She didn’t know how to process it. Was she really just…? Uncoupled? That easily?

Rusty had been on the side not wanting to intervene, but after she’d been standing there for long enough he carefully rolled up behind her and put a gentle hand on her shoulder. “Dinah..?”

She jumped a bit and looked back at him. There were tears welling in her eyes, one had already fallen down her cheek drawing a line of mascara with it. She just looked... shocked, well, maybe more hurt than shocked.

Or maybe it was both.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm already halfway through the next chapter so it's gonna continue!  
Like I said in my other fic if y'all have any suggestions on how to write the characters better *please* tell me!


End file.
